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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Wow Hugh, this is fantastic! I am just now finding out about what you're doing. I'm 28 years old and a beginner taking my first piano lessons ever, something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I love Debussy but thought it would be ages, if ever, that I could play something of his. I am only on your third lesson but almost weeped with joy at hearing myself play the first measure! I know it's going to be a long haul but am looking forward to getting through it with you as my guide!! Many thanks! And great insights like what it would sound like in the white keys, i guess that would be the key of C?...

I finally got all caught up on the lessons! I have registered for the webinar and am looking forward to it. I do have a question for the webinar. Do I post it now on the webinar page or wait until we're under way? (Just trying to think ahead a little).

Wow Hugh, this is fantastic! I am just now finding out about what you're doing. I'm 28 years old and a beginner taking my first piano lessons ever, something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I love Debussy but thought it would be ages, if ever, that I could play something of his. I am only on your third lesson but almost weeped with joy at hearing myself play the first measure! I know it's going to be a long haul but am looking forward to getting through it with you as my guide!! Many thanks! And great insights like what it would sound like in the white keys, i guess that would be the key of C?...

Welcome aboard! I'm so glad you find these lessons helpful - it's been tremendously rewarding to hear stories like yours from folks who have dreamed of playing this piece! And yes, you're right - that was an example of what the piece might've sounded like if it was written in the key of C major!

I finally got all caught up on the lessons! I have registered for the webinar and am looking forward to it. I do have a question for the webinar. Do I post it now on the webinar page or wait until we're under way? (Just trying to think ahead a little).

CMohr

Yay! Congrats, CMohr! More lessons are on the way, btw (it's been a very, very busy weekend for me!)

Feel free to post your questions now if you'd like. I'm going to be collecting some of the best ones from this forum, as well as from the scattered YouTube comments and emails to present at the Webinar this Saturday. We can also take questions "live", which is part of the fun of putting this webinar together: the ability to interact in real time with questions and comments!

Options, options! I do some waffling and decide on a specific fingering for the left hand in the previous measure leading into measure 39, mainly because I don't like relying on a weak pinkie to move to multiple notes. In the right hand, we find that the ledger lines actually climb a bit higher, so we extend the mnemonics a bit higher to help find the higher notes more easily ("But Don't Fall"). I give another set of options to use fingerings to find higher notes, using the octave hand again as a "measuring stick" as one of the options. I also give an interesting option in the end of the measure to use the thumb to jump down more securely than jumping with the "traditional" pinkie.

I have a question about the timing in measure 33. After looking and playing more closely, (btw my score doesn't show dotted eigths in the melody line or base line) I figured it could be counted bum-ble-bee, bum-ble-bee, buzz-ing, buzz-ing with the sixteenth notes.

Correct me if I'm wrong, please!

I know that in the second half of the measure RH is NOT playing triplets.(I did think they were awhile ago). But they would be played a little faster than regular sixteenth notes. Question?

I hope I've expressed this question so you can figure out what I'm talking about. Thanks!

I have a question about the timing in measure 33. After looking and playing more closely, (btw my score doesn't show dotted eigths in the melody line or base line) I figured it could be counted bum-ble-bee, bum-ble-bee, buzz-ing, buzz-ing with the sixteenth notes.

Correct me if I'm wrong, please!

I know that in the second half of the measure RH is NOT playing triplets.(I did think they were awhile ago). But they would be played a little faster than regular sixteenth notes. Question?

I hope I've expressed this question so you can figure out what I'm talking about. Thanks!

CMohr

Great question, CMohr! We can definitely use this one for the webinar - here's the answer in the meantime, but it'll make more sense when I can play it for you and explain what's going on.

The 16th notes stay exactly the same, they don't get played any faster - what actually happens is that the beat groupings in the melody shift from sets of three to sets of two - it's an amazing effect that gives the feeling of being "displaced" in time!

If you're using the "bum-ble-bee buz-ing" to represent eighth notes for each syllable (remember, there would be 2 16ths for each eighth), then the melody line could be represented as "Bum-ble-bee / (buz)-ing Buz-ing" (the () represents the note that's tied over)

Does that make sense? Let me know if this helps - or just tune in to the webinar and we can hash it out in more detail "live"!

(Woops...just realized that a bunch of these videos were missing the "Clair de lune" title at the beginning! Silly me...)

Before I forget, I'd like to invite you to sign up for an upcoming live webinar class lesson at http://pianofromscratch.com/webinars - these webinars will give me a chance to go much more in depth with the music, and we'll be able to have live interaction via chat and shared webcams.

In this lesson, I offer two sets of fingerings: a "traditional" one that is better for connecting the melody notes, and an unusual one that relies on the pedal to connect the notes, but might be easier to use for some folks who may have difficulties jumping around the keyboard.

I just ran across this (where, oh where have I been?) and I'm definitely looking forward to working on this. Claire de Lune was one of the first pieces I attempted when I re-started piano lessons some years ago, but I only got through the first 28 or so measures before I got frustrated and burnt out with it. This looks like it will get me back on track with this.

Hi Hugh,What a great set of lessons and great piece to work on. You really had me hooked explaining the wonderful story as backgroud. I'm a rank beginner working through Alfred AIO book #2 and had thought it would be a long while before I could tackle such beautiful music. Now I can't wait to get home from the office and start on the first 3 measures. Thanks so much for your efforts.

Hugh, I don't know if you're watching this forum *during* the webinar, but we're all in the ustream chat. And by the way, something is off with the sound because the piano sounds like and electric guitar. Your voice is fine though.

Many thanks to everyone who participated in today's Webinar! Sorry about the early glitches with the audio levels, the goofy camera focus and the buggy chat applets; this was definitely a learning experience for me, but I hope that everyone had fun nonetheless!

The recorded video from today's webinar is already up on the www.PianofromScratch.com website. Again, many thanks for all the terrific questions, and I look forward to "seeing" everyone at the next webinar!

I just wanted to thank Hugh for the fantastic webinar! (even tho I couldn't get in on the chat).The whole set-up and ideas behind the webcast worked out great! I completely enjoyed being able to take part although just as an observer!Thanks again, I think you've got a great thing going, Hugh.

I just wanted to thank Hugh for the fantastic webinar! (even tho I couldn't get in on the chat).The whole set-up and ideas behind the webcast worked out great! I completely enjoyed being able to take part although just as an observer!Thanks again, I think you've got a great thing going, Hugh.

Cheers!CMOHR

Thanks, CMohr! I was a little frazzled with the initial bugs, and more nervous than waiting backstage at Carnegie Hall! I do think this format has a LOT of potential - there's something utterly amazing about being able to teach class piano live with students dotted all over the globe at once! I thought the questions from that chat participants were really, really terrific - I just hope my answers were clear enough and helpful

Can't wait to do this again - hopefully sometime early November! And next time, I'd love to have you participate in the chat room!

Hugh, I'd also like to thank you for the webinar. Although I didn't register for it (and in fact, I stumbled across it early into it) I did enjoy it, and did in fact get a lot out of it. Now I need to get caught up, but that will happen. Hopefully, I can make an useful comment during the next one! And don't worry about the glitches, Hugh... everyone gets opening-night jitters!

Glad to hear it went reasonably well, sorry I couldn't join you as planned. I had a quick look at the recording but couldn't get them to play smoothly, is there any way to download them?

I have to agree the piano sounded terrible, too much gain maybe?

I accidentally had the piano and voice mics switched on my mixer, but didn't realize it until the chat applet finally kicked in (around 40 minutes in - i think it was my own browser's fault) and was able to read everyone's frantic texts telling me about the piano sound! LOL! I was able to fix up the sound levels for the rest of the webinar. Definitely one to chalk up for the learning curve!Once the chat was up and running properly, it was so cool to be able to react in real time to everyone's questions and comments! I'm in the process of downloading the video file from the webinar (I might edit and chop it up to remove the first 40 minutes of offensive piano levels) and will make it available soon on my websites for download and viewing.

I'll be scheduling more webinars very soon. This looks to be an exciting and fun way to enjoy group lessons in realtime over the internet! Hope to see you at the next one, BazC!

I'm in the process of downloading the video file from the webinar (I might edit and chop it up to remove the first 40 minutes of offensive piano levels) and will make it available soon on my websites for download and viewing.

We're just about to start one of the most difficult portions of the entire piece. I explain what makes this part so hard, between the twisting left hand runs and the challenging double-notes in the right hand, then give a preview of a creative solution to make it much easier to play (essentially, using the right hand to once again come to the "rescue" of the left hand). In the next lessons, I'll break down this creative fingering bit by bit, so don't worry - with a little patience and some careful practice, I think you'll be surprised at how well you'll be able to tackle this yourself!

gabeh98: I am a beginner (5 months with a cheapo keyboard, recently finished Alfred bk#1, never played any instrument before, no teacher) and over the past weekend have managed to get through the first 12 lessons and can manage the first 10 measures without major pauses. At several points I tried to "cheat" and jump a bar ahead of whatever last lesson I had viewed. Each time I was quite intimidated and had trouble working out exactly what was required. Each time when I then viewed the appropriate lesson for that measure, it all came together readily, if not with ease. Measure 10 in particular was such a mystery to me when I first read it that I was sure I would not be playing it for quite some time. After viewing the lesson and an hour of practice, however, I seem to have it down reasonably well.

Hugh: You cannot believe the excitement and childlike joy that I'm experiencing playing a bar like #10 when I thought it was totally beyond my reach just a few hours earlier. Thank you so much. At least through the first dozen or so, the lessons seem perfectly paced to me. One thing about bars 9 and 10 is that they practically beg you to play another measure, so I can't wait for my next session on #11.

Hugh, I was unable to listen to your Webinar so I watched the replay and found it to be very informative. I wish I had learned some of your fingering suggestions before I tackled the piece some years ago. Most of my fingering has been "learned in" and may be difficult to change now but I did get many other suggestions, such as posture at the piano, which I will work on. I hope to watch the next Webinar live and, once again, thank you for all you do.

I'm finding all this activity truly inspirational and I totally take my hat off to anyone who has been playing for 5 months and attempts a piece like this.

I've also been learning Claire (although not from Hugh's wonderful lessons). I've been practicing the tricky semi-quavery bit in the middle and made this recording. It's slow and without sustain (all the better to show up the problems):

I want to get this right before speeding up. There is one obvious mistake toward the end where my LH falls on the wrong note, but apart from that I'm not aware of mistakes, so if anyone hears anything, please let me know.

I fully understand your approach to Claire de Lune on these lessons... you need to go slowly and deliberately in order to convey the knowledge of the piece to us. BUT... I've seen and heard your playing of this for PianoDisc (the background video was posted earlier) and, of course, it's different. Here's my question... when you prepare for playing this expressively, how do you approach your interpretation? Any suggestions for us (of course, you have to learn to crawl before you attempt a 4-minute mile...) that can help us when we finally get the whole thing in our fingers? If you want to wait to address this until the lessons are completed, that's fine... we'll get there eventually!

[quote=gabeh98]Isn't this way too difficult for beginners to even contemplate?

gabeh98:JimF. said,"... I am a beginner (5 months with a cheapo keyboard, recently finished Alfred bk#1, never played any instrument before, no teacher) and over the past weekend have managed to get through the first 12 lessons and can manage the first 10 measures without major pause.....Each time I was quite intimidated and had trouble working out exactly what was required. Each time when I then viewed the appropriate lesson for that measure, it all came together readily, if not with ease....After viewing the lesson and an hour of practice, however, I seem to have it down reasonably well."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------JimF. I am at a loss for words. I am a beginner too, JimF - you have just inspired me. Joy